Saturday, 24 August 2013

Maybelline Superstay: In it for the long haul

There's loads of fab new products that I've tried recently, and I'm sure that any beauty blog you come across will give you tonnes of fab new products to experiment with... but I'd like to take a minute to appreciate an older product which I think is particularly underrated.

As part of the Maybelline Superstay range, these £8.99 (Boots) matte lipwands are fantastic value for money, because of their durability.

I reccommended these to a woman yesterday who was looking for something that would stay on during her wedding, and I let her test some colours out on my arm. Two days and TWO showers later, this is my arm...

You can still see the remains of what is "Fire Coral" and "Raspberry".

These wands leave a cool matte glossy finish that really do last a long time, and also come with a convenient lipseal that is tactfully on the other side, making it well worth the money.

Greasy Skin and Poor Decisions : My £25 Foundation mistake.

For those of you who are aware, I work at Boots' and occasionally we get double  discount days. These are a big deal because that makes Boots' own brand products nearly 50% off!

When our last double discount day coincided with a greasy skin week, I got a bit trigger happy with my bank card.

These are what I ended up with.

Your initial thoughts might not be of absolute "what the hell woman", but I'll explain why these were stupid reckless purchases.....

1) No7 Intelligent Colour Foundation
This is a popular foundation and fairly so; the clever formula means the foundation adapts to your skin tone, leaving a very natural finish.

This was a poor choice for me - the formula is incredibly greasy and generally targeted at an older market. The consistency felt horrible on my face and at some points I wasn't sure whether I needed to reapply because it had worn off my skin, or whether it just looked SO natural that it was fooling either me. Either way, there was definitely not enough coverage for my liking. The second mistake I made was bulk buying ..... Even if it was an absolute bargain at the price I paid, I now have an unopened tube that is completely useless to me. 

 2) Rimmel Match Perfection Cream Foundation.

I actually thought I'd really like this but it was just soo greasy. With previous creamy foundations, I've found that once the first application dries, theres still a fair amount of coverage, but this was totally wrong for my skin and whenever I put it on I felt like I was moving it around my face - not applying it. I'd reccommend this to anyone who suffers with dry skin though.

3) Rimmel Stay Matte Powder
I actually didn't mind this, at £3.99 it's cost friendly and there are some really nice, warm colours in the collection. However, I dislike the packaging as I always lose the lid - and as someone who likes to reapply on the go, this rendered the powder almost useless for me. In my opinion - all powders should have attached lids, preferably a mirror in there too, and a nice soft thick sponge to get your hands around. This was cost friendly, but felt cheap.

Back in style...

I'd just like to say a big thank you to the people who messaged me during the last month, asking about my blog.

I haven't posted since June because my laptop broke and I was between phones. Now I'm back with you on my Iphone and working on getting my laptop back on its feet so I can start making video's too.

Keep checking here for updates because two months is a long time and I've got ALOT to talk about. Please also follow me at twitter.com/lipstickbullet1, and if beauty blogs are your thing then try following us on #bbloggers for some great conversations and tips from some fab people!

Thanks guys!
Jess x

Sunday, 9 June 2013

Bad Beauty Habits #2

So I had really good feedback in April about my post concerning bad beauty habits. Well here are a few more for you....

1. Girls who use any of the following motivational phrases...

"Eating is Cheating"
"The A Team"
"Team Skinny"
"I'm not eating today because I'm going out tomorrow"
"I had a snickers last Friday, I'm so fat"


You get the point.

It's not good for your body to constantly be abusing it with your bad eating habits. If you find yourself saying any of these things then you have a really bad attitude towards food and you might think you're motivating people around you to be more healthy, but actually you're just making them as messed up about what they eat as you are.

Eating sensibly, in reasonable amounts, a little of the bad stuff and a lot of the good stuff, and exercising is the only proven way to lose weight for good. Constantly starving your body isn't good for it and you might want to be really skinny, but the chances are you're going to end up really dead. And unless you're an absolute idiot, you'd probably prefer to be a bit chunky than dead.

2. Filing your nails in public

I see people doing it all the time and most people probably don't think it's anything to get annoyed about. Most girls probably have their own little cutely patterned nail files in their purses, ready to whip out and use whenever they have a few minutes of time to kill. And anything that comes in a cute pattern was practically made for people to see, right?

Except that when you're filing your nails in a public place, tiny little fragments of nail dust are falling from the file and into that public area. Just because you can't see it, doesn't make it any less disgusting. For me personally, it's up there with clipping your toenails in someone elses space, you just wouldn't.

3. Being really unhygienic with testers
Not only is this gross for everybody else - you aren't doing yourself any favours either. If you can comfortably go into a store, see a nice shade of lipstick, pick up the tester and put it to your own lips as though 30 or 40 germ ridden strangers hadn't done that exact same thing, then you need to reassess your life.

When you use a tester, there are certain points of your body that it is much more hygienic to test them on. Like your wrist, under your neck - the points of your skin where your natural skin tone comes through, because you're judging whether that shade looks good with your colouring.

If push comes to shove and you absolutely have to try it out on your lips, then ask the nearest sales assistant for a tissue and then after you've wiped the lipstick, using your finger applicate a small amount onto your lips and spread with your fingertips.

4. Dousing yourself in perfume
Perfume smells best when it's subtle and just lingers gently on your skin. Not everybody has the same taste and if someone doesn't appreciate your scent, then the last thing they want is to be smelling it 15 minutes after you leave a room.

If in doubt, I always follow the Marilyn rule . Marilyn Monroe famously quoted "Only spray your perfume on the places you'd like to be kissed". A spray in a couple of intimate places like the nape of your neck and your wrists will mean that nobody is choking as you walk past. Your perfume will last longer too.

5. Too Much Make-up
It's actually really uncomfortable trying to have a conversation with someone that's wearing too much make up. It's unprofessional too - you're actually coming across as more of an amateur and won't get alot of respect back for it. It was only in our very early school days that we thought the more make up we wore meant the prettier we looked - let's leave it there!

Travel Size Treasures

These little beauties will be saving my life while I'm on holiday...

Soap and Glory is fab, but it can be pricey stuff when you're on a budget. Luckily for holidaying budgeters like myself, they do a fair few of their products in the 50ml travel size containers. This will be great on holiday for getting rid of any dry or dead skin and keeping my complexion nice and refreshed in the sun. For only £2.50 it's a good deal whether you're travelling or just trying to spread out your skincare costs until your next payday.
This tube of Simple Moisturising Wash is one of my favourites. It's so light and good to my skin, with almost no abrasive ingredients. It has a more neutral ph balance - unlike many face washes and regular soap, which tend to be alkaline and this can dry up your skin horribly. It also comes in a 50ml tube for just £1.29 from Boots.
I love the Sun, but my hair doesn't. This Mark Hill Holiday Hair Cover Up Protection Spray is really handy in a 50ml travel spray, you can just whip it out of your handbag and keep your hair from drying out.

Sunday, 2 June 2013

My Week Ahead

So I may be rather quiet in the upcoming week. Here's a couple of beauty things I'm trying to cram in before I leave for Lanzarote...

1- Drinking loads of water. There's nothing more upsetting than having a breakout of spots while you're on holiday.

2- Last minute dieting. I'm going to be eating whatever I want while I'm actually in Lanzarote, but for now I need to be good. I took a side-picture today to highlight my problem areas and I definitely would like to lose some podge around my middle. So it's salads and fruit all week!

3- Moisturise overload. Hot weather always dries up my skin so I'm going to be extremely kind to it this week and make sure it gets plenty of moisture. I'm also exfoliating at least once a day.

4 - Relaxing. Nothing is going to stress me out this week. Only 5 more shifts at work until all I have to worry about is sun, sea and cocktails.

5- Detoxing. Taking a breather from alcohol, as I'm sure there'll be plenty of it next week. I want to let my body have a bit of a break.

Essentially my life ^

Friday, 31 May 2013

Macmillan Cancer Support

Having swamped you all with Blogs today, here is something I would genuinely like to talk about.

This week I was put in charge of fundraising at work for Macmillan Cancer Support. Everyone is so enthusiastic about the cause and I've had some great responses. I've come up with a number of ways to fundraise...

We'll be having store to store netball matches in honour of the charity (something my other half thinks is hilarious as I haven't played netball since year 9), in collaboration with some other stores in Didsbury there will be a raffle with a fair few stores donating prizes, and lots of family- fun events including treasure hunts and prizes for kids.

On the beauty side of things we're really using our expertise to bring something to the cause - we'll be giving £5 French Manicures and No7 makeovers free with donations to Macmillan, and we're always looking for idea's so if there's any area you don't think we've covering then please feel free to email me any suggestions.

In the meantime if you want to donate to Macmillan then please send any cheques to

Boots The Pharmacy
736-740 Wilmslow Road
Didsbury
Manchester
Greater Manchester
M20 6WF

Thanks everyone! Happy June for tomorrow :)